Alumni

Jeff CHEN, a graduate of Dual Degree Program in Technology and Management (T&M-DDP), has raised over HK$6 million through crowdfunding online with a brand new design of bicycle helmet in just one month.

Met his partner in Harvard where the project started
In 2013, Jeff exchanged to Harvard University and there he met his future business partner Eu-wen DING at a hackathon “Startup Scramble” where Eu-wen pitched his idea of the next generation of bicycle helmet with lights and turning/brake signals for enhancing the safety of cyclists.
In USA, cycling is a popular sport and many people ride bicycles to work or school. However, cyclists are often injured on roads because they are not easily visible to other drivers, especially at night.  Eu-wen thought of adding integrated lights of turning/brake signals to bicycle helmet so cyclists would be more visible to other drivers and signals would greatly enhance the communication between cyclists and other road users.
Jeff found this idea very interesting and practical, so he joined Eu-wen to further develop the idea.  They produced a prototype within two days and won the championship.

Start the journey
After winning, Jeff and Eu-wen decided to turn the idea into a real, viable product. The major challenge of producing this next generation bicycle helmet is to integrate all the electronics into the helmet such that it still maintains its main protection function for absorbing impact in the event of a fall or collision.  They spent over a year in working with the helmet manufacturer to ensure the bicycle helmet with new features would meet the safety and certification standards.  They also met real users on streets direct and improved the helmet based on their feedbacks.

Raise funds from public online
When the major technological obstacle was overcome, Jeff and Eu-wen put the project on “Kickstarter”, an online crowdfunding platform to raise funds from the public by pre-selling the helmet at US$99 each. They hit the funding target of US$125,000 (around HK$968,750) on the first day of fund-raising and reached over HK$6 million with over 6,000 backers in just one month when the campaign closed which is totally out of their expectation.
After nearly 2-year hard work, the new bicycle helmet were tested by real users in December 2015 to collect feedbacks for further improvement and will be put into mass production in March. The actual products came to market in April 2016 and later to market.

What’s Next?
No doubt the project is a success but Jeff knows it is the future that matters. Jeff recalled that there was a startup which raised over US$10 million but turned out to delay in delivering products around one year. Their main focus now is to deliver the products on time and control the quality. In future, Jeff and Eu-wen will keep on enhancing the bicycle helmet by adding different functions like automatic emergency call when detecting serious vibration and cycling route sharing function etc. and develop other bicycle-related products.
Jeff valued the curriculum of T&M-DDP which provided him with both business skills and technology knowledge. Business kills helped him present and pitch effectively in front of investors. Technology knowledge is definitely a solid background for coping with technological problems when developing products.
To kick-off a startup, Jeff has the following advices to students:

1. Innovative ideas are not enough, the ability in solving a real problem is more important.
2. Create some prototypes (model, mock up app etc.) as early as possible to test with the real potential customers and validate the idea early.
3. Learn from people who have really gone through the startup process.

Sensbeat is a mobile app which is available in both Google Play and Apple App Store. The company is currently based in Silicon Valley, the leading hub for high-tech innovations and development.

Sensbeat targets at a market-in-between, it builds a unique social networking application which allows users to share their emotions and music and aspires to connect people around the globe with music as a universal language. Out of 7 co-founders of Sensbeat, 6 are graduates of HKUST.

The story all begins in this young and innovative university. Mr. Leo Wong (HKUST Alumnus, BBA (Marketing & IS) 2014) initiated an idea of founding a start-up company when he was on international exchange in Europe. The idea further sublimed when he returned from IE Business School in Spain to HKUST after his exchange, and met Mr. Ben Chan (HKUST Alumnus, Dual-Degree Program Graduate 2014) and Mr. Conrad Lo (HKUST Alumnus, BBA (FINA) 2013) in the university community coincidentally.

The three share one common dream, and all of them, despite receiving “prestigious” job offers, chose to become entrepreneurs and co-founded Sensbeat. Their dream is not an easy one to achieve and during the process often accompanied by challenges and obstacles. They have once been beset with the difficulties in funding, the clashes between their studies and managing the business, and the lack of a fixed working location. Life is never easy for these founders and they had their time of frustration.

Leo, one of the co-founders of Sensbeat constantly express his gratefulness for the kind assistances he had received from the university. He said, “HKUST gives us an entrepreneurship friendly environment. The guidance and advice received from HKUST’s experienced and dedicated professors, the office leased by the university, all of these have enabled us to push the business into the next level.’ “Bitterness finishes, sweetness begins”, Sensbeat has received attentions from different angel investors and venture capital. The group had raised over 1 million US dollars before the founders graduated, making it one of the largest fundings for a student-founded startup in history. They have also received different international awards, such as the “Top 6 Start-Up” in Asia, Silver Award of HKSTP Technopreneur and the Grand Prize Champion (International Category) in Ignite Entrepreneur Challenge 2013. Without a doubt, Sensbeat is an internationally recognized start-up and is a huge success.